Impressionism

If one knows nothing of art except for one style, that style is likely to be Impressionism. Even if, for some reason known only to yourself, you have never entered a museum in the whole course of your life, you have no doubt seen dozens of Impressionist works reproduced on calendars, refrigerator magnets, T-shirts and key chains. People who don't particularly like art like Impressionism because it is pretty and - at least in many respects - intellectually simple. Because of all of these points, anyone who wishes to consider himself or herself a sophisticate in the ways of the artworld might well feel inclined to turn up the nose at Impressionism for something more obscure, a style that requires a far more rarefied taste.

But when one sees one of the finest pieces of Impressionist painting, any intention that one might have had of decrying it as "pretty enough" or "rather plebian" will find the words sticking in the craw. Claude Monet's "Water Lilies" (c.1919-26, oil on canvas, in the collection of the St. Louis Museum of Art) is one of these masterpieces not only of Impressionism but of post-Renaissance art (Week

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Category: Arts - I